Sleeping Babies

I know of parents who would not let their baby sleep more than 15 minutes at a time during the day in the belief that it would promote better night time sleeping. No, that isn't how it works. Sleep begets sleep.

And it is accepted that good sleeping promotes overall health. New research indicates babies can also learn while sleeping.

See PhysOrg: Study shows newborns learn while asleep

So do whatever it takes to get your baby to sleep. If it means driving around or walking in the stroll for two hours then that's what you do.

Recent Parenting Reads At The New York Times That I Found Interesting

INCONCEIVABLE! Exercise is good for kids: Phys Ed: Can Exercise Make Kids Smarter?

An Explanation For Why Dads Toss Their Babies: Why Mothers and Fathers Play Differently

Re-defining Maslow’s Hierarchy: Living to Be a Parent

Amazon Mom

It just isn't for moms.

Site: Amazon.com/mom

Amazon Mom is a free membership program aimed at helping parents and caregivers, from the prenatal days through the toddler years, use Amazon to find all the products their family needs

Fishy Kids

My 11 month old had her first whitefish recently. I completely support the idea of having kids eat plenty of fish. I've even read that there are old-timers in the nordic countries who attribute their mental acuity in their advanced age to the amount of fish they ate as youngsters

See PhysOrg: Salmon baby food? Babies need omega-3s and a taste for fish, scientist says

Play Is Not The Same As Violence

There have been studies showing that physical play with kids stimulates the release of beneficial brain chemicals.

Last week I was fortunate to have a lot of play time with a 4 year old boy which was much different than play time with a 4 year old girl. But they both seemed to benefit and enjoy what we called "wrestle time", or as they liked to say "wrastle".

The boy and girl were clearly different in how they spent this wrestle time. The boy appeared to want to test the limits and the girl in pinning me and getting pinned back.

What is clear to me that the time I give my girls for roughhousing would be inadequate for a boy - if I had a boy I'd want to dedicate periods of time where he could have physical play (with rules to keep it from being violent) and get out his aggression with the understanding that outside of "wrestle time" physical play was not appropriate.

And so it seems like fortuitous timing when returning to civilization I came across this in the news. Via MSNBC: Bring it: Boys may benefit from aggressive play

IIHS Booster Seats Test Results

Booster evaluations for 2010

Also includes which booster seats to avoid.